The invention concerns a closure clip for products in bag or sausage form, a clip line formed from those closure clips and a die for processing the closure clips.
In particular the invention concerns a closure clip for products in bag or sausage form, the packaging cover material of which is formed from at least one packaging film, wherein the closure clip has a clip bottom and two straight clip legs that adjoin the clip bottom in the same direction and diverge away from each other away from the clip bottom and the central longitudinal axes thereof and the central longitudinal axis of the clip bottom lie in a common plane. The invention further concerns a clip line comprising those closure clips and a die for processing of those closure clips.
Closure clips or clips of the specified kind are used for example for closing sausage packagings. The closure operation is done by special machines such as clipping machines that are arranged downstream of corresponding automatic filling apparatuses for feeding the product to be packaged and introducing it into the packaging. To close a product in sausage form, a portion of the packaging cover material, which is gathered together in the form of a twisted plaited portion is introduced into the closure clip that in turn is held in a die that has a shape corresponding to the shape of the clip bottom. Thereupon the legs of the clip are closed around the plaited portion of the packaging by means of a ram which is moved against the die.
German utility model No 90 009 36 discloses a closure clip of the kind for use on products in bags or sausage form, which has a clip bottom and two straight clip legs that adjoin the clip bottom in the same direction and are mutually divergent away from the clip bottom, wherein the central longitudinal axes of the clip legs and that of the clip bottom are disposed in a common plane. In that case, the clip bottom extends straight so that, in a plan view, that previously known closure clip is in the shape of the letter ‘U’ with side limbs that diverge away from the clip bottom. Admittedly, in that known closure clip, the corners where the straight clip bottom goes into the straight clip legs are rounded off, but those roundings only involve a small radius of curvature. That means that, when the closure clip is closed in a clipping machine such as a die and a ram, a kinking fold can be formed at those corners, whereby a crack is produced within the closure clip. That crack weakens the closure clip so that it breaks under an only slight further loading and thus loses its closure function.